Columbia French

04/05/2022

Conversation with translator Linda Coverdale

UPCOMING EVENT: Monday, April 11 at 8pm-9pm: The Columbia University French Cultural Society presents a conversation in English with literary translator Linda Coverdale on the joys and pitfalls of translating books from English to French on the 2nd floor of the Columbia Maison Française (Buell Hall).

Linda Coverdale has translated over 80 books, including works by Duras, Echenoz, Carrère, Chamoiseau, Simenon, and Barthes. She has won many prizes, including the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and several Scott Moncrieff and French-American Foundation Translation Prizes. Linda learned French as a child during a year in Grenoble, France, and majored in French studies at Brown. She earned her MA and PhD at Johns Hopkins, then a BFA at Parsons, and after working in publishing and film production, she finally tried out translating, which became the love of her life. Now a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, she remains amazed by the glories and pitfalls of magicking one language into another.

RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conversation-with-translator-linda-coverdale-tickets-305938198387. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. For the public, a government-issued photo ID and proof of vaccination are required.

Meet literary translator Linda Coverdale for a discussion in English on the joys and pitfalls of translating books from English to French

04/01/2022

maysles documentary center

UPCOMING FILM FESTIVAL: Saturday, April 2 at 5pm-9pm: Francophone Short Films in Harlem presents its 6th year of 10 shorts and 1 feature film from 10 francophone countries at the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem. All shorts are recent, have English subtitles, and have won awards. The festival will also be online for free from April 3-10.

For more information, visit www.francophoneshortfilms.com. Secure free tickets ($15/ticket for the cocktail hour) at www.maysles.org.

The Maysles Documentary Center, a not for profit organization, is dedicated to the exhibition and production of documentary films that inspire dialogue and action.

03/30/2022

On the Eve of the French Elections: The Politics of History in Politics

UPCOMING DISCUSSION: Tuesday, April 5 at 7pm-8pm: The Columbia University French Cultural Society, Columbia Maison Française, European Institute and Alliance Program presents On the Eve of the French Elections: The Politics of History in Politics with Professors Jérémie Foa, Mame-Fatou Niang, Nicolas Delalande, Nadia Urbanati, and Thomas Dodman.

History has long been a very French passion. It has also become a political battleground, flaring up at each election cycle. In 2022, as in 2017, historians have felt compelled to enter the political arena and respond directly to political (ab)uses of the past. Collective editorial efforts have sought to both correct mistakes and offer alternative visions of the country's history, reaching far back in time and widening the scope of analysis. Today, what France will be seems to hinge more than ever on what we think it was.

This event is free and open to the public. Proof of vaccination and masks are required. You can also follow the discussion live on Facebook. RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/on-the-eve-of-the-french-elections-the-politics-of-history-in-politics-tickets-296944768797

A Panel Discussion with Jérémie Foa, Mame-Fatou Niang, Nicolas Delalande, Nadia Urbanati, and Thomas Dodman

03/23/2022

Columbia's Maison Francaise: I Was a French Muslim | Book Culture

UPCOMING DISCUSSION: Thursday, March 31 at 6pm-7pm: Columbia Maison Française, Middle East Institute, and Institute for Comparative Literature and Society presents a roundtable discussion with Judith Surkis, Amara Lakhous, Madeleine Dobie, and Elaine Mokhtefi-Klein on her husband Mokhtar Mokhtefi’s memoir, I Was a French Muslim. The book can be ordered here: https://www.bookculture.com/event/columbias-maison-francaise-i-was-french-muslim

I Was a French Muslim provides a vivid account of a childhood under French colonization and a life dedicated to fighting for the freedom and dignity of the Algerian people. The son of a butcher and the youngest of 6 siblings, Mokhtar Mokhtefi was born in 1935 and grew up in a village de colonisation roughly 100 km south of Algiers. In 1957, at 22, he joined the National Liberation Army (ALN), the armed wing of the National Liberation Front (FLN), which had been waging war against France since 1954. Mokhtefi’s powerful memoir bears witness to the extraordinary men and women who fought for Algerian independence against a colonial regime that viewed non-Europeans as fundamentally inferior, designating them not as French citizens, but as “French Muslims.”

This event is free and open to the public. Proof of vaccination and masks are required. RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/i-was-a-french-muslim-a-memoir-by-mokhtar-mokhtefi-tickets-290729779597.

Please join our friends at Columbia's Maison Francaise at 6pm on Thursday, March 31st as Elaine Mokhtefi-Klein talks about her husband Mokhtar Mokhtefi's memoir, I Was a French Muslim, recently translated into English by Other Press. She is joined in conversation by Judith Surkis, Amara Lakhous, and...

03/21/2022

SCREENING: The Story of a Three-Day Pass by Melvin Van Peebles

UPCOMING EVENT: Thursday, March 24 at 7pm-9pm: Columbia Maison Française presents The Story of a Three-Day Pass (La Permission, 1968). Melvin Van Peebles’s edgy, angsty, romantic first feature could never have been made in America. Unable to break into a segregated Hollywood, Van Peebles decamped to France, taught himself the language, and wrote a number of books in French, one of which, La permission, would become his stylistically innovative feature debut. Turner (Harry Baird), an African American soldier stationed in France, is granted a promotion and a 3-day leave from base by his casually racist commanding officer and heads to Paris, where he finds whirlwind romance with a white woman (Nicole Berger)—but what happens to their love when his furlough is over?

Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLo6geyWTqU.

RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/screening-the-story-of-a-three-day-pass-by-melvin-van-peebles-tickets-288065119527. This event is free and open to the public. Proof of vaccination and masks are required.

In-person screening of The Story of a Three Day Pass by Melvin Van Peebles. 1968, 90min.

03/09/2022

Discussion avec l'auteur de Call Me by Your Name: André Aciman

DISCUSSION WITH ANDRE ACIMAN: Wednesday, March 23 at 8pm: The Columbia University French Cultural Society presents a discussion in French with the writer André Aciman in the East Gallery of the Maison Française (Buell Hall). André Aciman was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and is an American memoirist, essayist, novelist, and scholar. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Call Me by Your Name and Find Me as well as of Out of Egypt and Eight White Nights, among other books. Homo Irrealis, his collection of essays, appeared in January 2021. Audible has recently published The Gentleman from Peru (2021), Mariana (2021), and Room on the Sea (2022). Aciman is the director of The Writers’ Institute and teaches Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

RSVP here (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/discussion-avec-lauteur-de-call-me-by-your-name-andre-aciman-tickets-278823888757) with proof of vaccination required. Questions? Email Laurence Marie at [email protected].

Une discussion avec André Aciman, auteur de Plus tard ou jamais (Call Me by Your Name) et Adieu Alexandrie (Out of Egypt)

03/02/2022

Job perspectives for French speakers

CAREER PERSPECTIVES: Wednesday, March 2 at 6:30pm: The French Cultural Society, French-American Chamber of Commerce and the Center for Career Education present job (and internship) opportunities for French speakers in France, the US, and the francophone world. This presentation in English is open to undergraduates and graduates from Columbia and Barnard and will be held in the East Gallery of the Maison Française (Buell Hall).

Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/job-perspectives-for-french-speakers-tickets-272090729697.

Join the French-American Chamber of Commerce and the Center for Career Education at Columbia to learn about job opportunities

02/25/2022

STAGED READING: Monday, February 28 at 7:30pm: Red Bull Theater, The Drama League, and the French Institute Alliance Française (FI:AF) present Aimé Césaire’s A Tempest in celebration of Black History Month. The in-person performance, directed by Lanise Antoine Shelley, will be in English and will also be livestreamed.

Purchase tickets here: https://fiaf.org/event/2022-02-a-tempest/

Description: Celebrated poet and activist Aimé Césaire strikingly adapts Shakespeare’s Jacobean play through a postcolonial lens. Written in the tumultuous 1960s, A Tempest uses intelligence, wit, and beauty to confront complex intersections of race, power, and anti-imperialism. The characters and plot are largely unchanged. Prospero conjures a violent storm to drive his enemy’s ship ashore on the island on which he is exiled with his daughter. Césaire sets the story on a Caribbean island and depicts Caliban and Ariel as slaves to Prospero. Their opposing voices echo Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

02/24/2022

COLUMBIA FRENCH DEPARTMENT OPEN HOUSE: Wednesday, March 2 at 3:30pm-5:30pm: Stop by the Maison Française (Buell Hall) with your questions about the French major and concentration, the French Cultural Society, and study abroad opportunities at Reid Hall, Paris over free Ladurée pastries. Venez nombreux!

02/23/2022

As I Open My Eyes: In person screening at Columbia Maison Française

UPCOMING FILM SCREENING: Thursday, March 3 at 8pm: The Columbia Maison Française, Unifrance and Albertine Cinémathèque will screen As I Open My Eyes (À peine j'ouvre les yeux) (2015) in Arabic with English subtitles. To register with a Columbia ID, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/as-i-open-my-eyes-in-person-screening-at-columbia-maison-francaise-tickets-265148635707.

As I Open My Eyes depicts the clash between culture and family as seen through the eyes of a young Tunisian woman balancing the traditional expectations of her family with her creative life as the singer in a politically charged rock band. Director Leyla Bouzid's musical feature debut offers a nuanced portrait of the individual implications of the incipient Arab Spring. Watch the trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgx_48jQAmE.

Director Leyla Bouzid will join Professor Madeleine Dobie in a masterclass and discussion on Friday, March 4, from 1-2pm. Register for this in person event here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/masterclass-with-leyla-bouzid-tickets-264443847667 or follow the discussion live at https://www.facebook.com/columbia.maisonfrancaise. Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-cinema-as-i-open-my-eyes-tickets-264427558947 to watch virtually.

A Film by Leyla Bouzid, 2015, 102 min. Arabic with English subtitles

01/31/2022

Essay Series: “Illness and Francophone Literature and History”

Check out articles by French majors Rosa Geoghegan, Lillian Rountree and recent alum Sam Millner in the most recent edition of Synapsis on the theme of “Illness and Francophone Literature and History.” Many congratulations to you, Rosa, Lillian, and Sam! https://medicalhealthhumanities.com/2022/01/26/essay-series-illness-and-francophone-literature-and-history/

Madeleine Dobie & Thomas Dodman // This collection of essays in Synapsis grew out of a course on pandemics in francophone history and culture that we offered in Columbia’s Department of French …

12/08/2021

A Dad Cartoonist Travels into Factory Life

Read Assistant Professor Aubrey Gabel’s recent article, A Dad Cartoonist Travels into Factory Life, published in Public Books: https://www.publicbooks.org/a-dad-cartoonist-travels-into-factory-life/

The artist comes as a class outsider to the factory, marveling at the complexity of its machinery and the dexterity and dangers of manual labor.

12/04/2021

UPCOMING PERFORMANCE: Friday, December 10 & Saturday, December 11 at 7pm: Students in Fordham University’s French and Theater programs will be performing Molière's Le Médecin malgré lui at the Kehoe Theater at Fordham College Lincoln Center. The play will be directed by Stéphanie Fribourg, our new French Theater Program Director, who is an accomplished actor and director.

With all the chaos and controversy of vaccines, pandemic, charlatans, and apocryphal treatments, there is perhaps no better time to see Molière! While you will need to be fully vaccinated to come and masks will need to be worn, I'm sure the doctors on stage will gladly provide additional treatments for those in need!

RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeuaQJG8IZK5r1F_wDQlC_IVS21hEvLXM30wAyIzO1f1Yb2xw/viewform.

12/01/2021

Joséphine Baker, Gisèle Halimi et le Panthéon : le bonneteau de Mac...

Josephine Baker just became the first Black woman to be interred at the Pantheon in Paris

https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/culture-idees/230821/josephine-baker-gisele-halimi-et-le-pantheon-le-bonneteau-de-macron?utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3mwh4BhQIzud4l9dWwUehVDRUY3BrHTfJlDtKoArIZ6zMGi4kv15Vbya8

L’Élysée annonce ce 23 août : « Joséphine Baker sera honorée au Panthéon le 30 novembre. » Décryptage d’une décision : Emmanuel Macron entend lever l’hypothèque Gisèle Halimi, t...

11/19/2021

WE ARE THE DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH!

On Friday, November 19, 2021, the University Senate unanimously approved a motion to amend the university statutes to change the name of our department from French & Romance Philology to French. The motion was brought before the Senate in response to a request from our Executive Committee with the enthusiastic approval of the Dean of Humanities.

11/16/2021

Il faut « écarter les auteurs de violences sexuelles et sexistes » de la vie politique

Nearly 300 women in French politics and academia are calling for public support for the #MeToo movement this week in light of next year's elections for president and members of the Assemblée nationale https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2021/11/15/nous-exigeons-que-le-monde-politique-prenne-enfin-en-compte-le-mouvement-metoo_6102086_3232.html

TRIBUNE. 285 femmes travaillant dans le milieu politique et universitaire, dont les députées Karima Delli (EELV) et Danièle Obono (LFI) et la vice-présidente du Sénat (PS) Laurence Rossignol, exigent, dans une tribune au « Monde », « que le monde politique prenne enfin en compte le mouvement...